SHORTLY AFTER changing their not guilty pleas yesterday, 19 medical technologists who participated in a three-day strike in January 2003 to protest against inadequate salaries were each fined $3,000 or 30 days for the days they were absent from work.Resident Magistrate Kissock Laing imposed the fines in the Corporate Area Criminal Court.
There were 20 medical technologists appearing before the court yesterday but Carmalita Hines, employed to the National Public Health Laboratory, did not change her plea. She was freed of the charges when her superior officer, Dr. Clara Mullings, advised the court that she had been at work on the days in question.
Two other medical technologists, Ikechuku Orukuwaku and Marcel Jackson are now on bench warrants for not appearing yesterday.
Defence attorneys Christopher Townsend and Vincent Wellesley submitted before the court that although their clients were guilty, they had already been punished enough as they lost payment for every day they were absent due to the strike.
ADMONISH AND DISCHARGE
Mr. Wellesley suggested that RM Laing admonish and discharge them of the charge of defying a back-to-work order issued by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal on January 16, 2003. "Please let them return to their normal lives," he pleaded.
After a 10-minute recess, RM Laing said while he recognised that the medical technologists had suffered numerous financial hardships since the genesis of the case, the court had a duty to send a message of its disapproval of their actions.
Three other medical technologists, Junior Green, Karla Wright and Glenita Kerr, are to face the court on Monday.
